AT&T to bring FaceTime over cellular to all customers by end of year

AT&T has announced that all mobile video chat applications, including Apple's FaceTime, will work over its cellular network by the end of this year.

"Throughout the second half of this year, we plan to enable pre-loaded video chat apps over cellular for all our customers, regardless of data plan or device," AT&T confirmed to The Verge on Monday. "That work is expected to be complete by year end."

The policy shift will enable video chat programs such as Apple's FaceTime for iOS devices and Google's new Hangouts app for Android and iOS.

FaceTime over cellular initially debuted with the arrival of iOS 6, but AT&T limited the feature to customers that had switched over to a Mobile Share plan, as well as those with an LTE device like an iPhone 5 or the latest iPad on a tiered plan. That decision led to no small amount of trouble for the carrier, with AT&T eventually compelled to defend itself, claiming that it was not violating Net Neutrality regulations by blocking FaceTime.

AT&T began expanding access to FaceTime over cellular in November of last year. That shift initially included a few users who had grandfathered unlimited data plans, but the carrier eventually limited it to those with tiered data plans.

Beginning in June, AT&T will allow unlimited users with LTE devices to access FaceTime over cellular. By the end of the year, all customers should be able to use Apple's and other similar video chat applications.

Meanwhile, I have facetime on TMO right now. Tried it outside my house which was always a horrible mobile experience on ATT and it was almost as good as wifi.

Given the prices I was paying on ATT vs. TMO, I am surprised anyone sticks around (I'm paying about half what I did on ATT and no overages) - the "unlimited" soft cap at 3GB is only 500MB more than my current TMO plan, and I have tethering to boot, all for a lower price and just as good data coverage.

If your area has good TMO, I'd switch. Why wait to get what others have right now? I'm sure ATT will kneecap the next big Apple feature just like they did with Facetime.

I have to say, I love my grandfathered, unlimited data plan (~$82.00/Month) with AT&T.

Just this past Monday, a week ago, LTE went live in my area too, on my iPhone 5.

And about 6 months ago, I exceed the 5GB tier, where i received an SMS text from AT&T, that I was going to get throttled down.

....well, it never happened. for the last 5 months, I'm "averaging 10GB per month, without any throttle-down whatsoever

.. Just now I checked, and I'm at 9GB with 6 days to go in my monthly cyle

.....I just did a speed test on my iPhone 5 with LTE

44.30 Mbps Down and 12.52 Mbps up ...Jersey Shore area

My Point, things are still looking up and my plan is killer (relative to the US, of course)

Ditto. I just used Skype in the meantime, but so far I find, overall, little to complain about about AT&T grandfathered LTE. When I upgrade to the 5S/6/whatever, I'll give my wife my 5 and she'll get grandfathered LTE too.

I've heard this one before. I mean FT was not enough for me to to drop my grandfathered unlimited. And was not about to pay more for something I would never/rarely use. So if they do activate, goodie, if not, i'll wait for them to announce the unlimited FT "release" for the third time. I looked at even switching carrier's in the US and I be paying more or same at another, so why switch...

So, if they activate, goodie goodie... if not. I have my iMac at home that does it... Or worse case, Skype it.